Luke Rockhold Gives Jared Cannonier a ‘20% Chance’ Against Israel Adesanya: “He’s Got a Puncher’s Chance”

Posted on by Matt James

Luke Rockhold made a tour of the media recently as he’s gearing up for a high-profile return to combat sports. The former UFC middleweight champion competed back in 2019, when he was viciously knocked out by Jan Blachowicz.

Luke Rockhold has taken his time to rest and recuperate, and he’s targeting a clash against Israel Adesanya for the middleweight belt. He believes ‘Izzy’ will be a tough puzzle to solve and wants to be the first man to defeat ‘The Last Stylebender’ in the 185-pound weight class.

Luke Rockhold has seen it all in his career and he’s got a keen eye for picking up major threats in the division. When speaking to Submission Radio, Luke Rockhold provided his prediction for Israel Adesanya’s next title defense against Jared Cannonier.

Per Luke Rockhold, ‘The Killa Gorilla’ has a mere 20% chance to snag the victory from the ever-dominant Israel Adesanya. He cited Adesanya’s range and mobility to be the biggest factors that would cause Jared Cannonier problems.

“Cannonier’s got a 20% chance. He’s got a puncher’s chance but Israel is so long and effective, how he gets out of the way of a power puncher like that. He fights from so many angles. It’s going to be tough for Cannonier to get through the power kicks and takedowns or whatever he’s going to fu**ing try to do. You never know though, he’s a tough dude.” 

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Cannonier has been a tough nut to crack and, barring Robert Whittaker, no one has been able to put the brakes on him. Cannonier possesses explosive power and speed and he’s had the experience of facing all kinds of fighters. Cannonier has fought in the heavyweight and light heavyweight divisions before moving to middleweight.

Additionally, Cannonier is the only fighter other than Conor McGregor to have scored a knockout in three UFC divisions. This speaks to the monstrous power that Jared Cannonier possesses and he’ll be more than willing to engage with every fighter on the roster. However, Israel Adesanya has proven himself to be a class apart, and this match-up is intriguing on many different levels.